Greens open to Aurora sell off

It is estimated that selling off Tasmania's energy generation and retail assets would reap $8 billion.

ABC

The Tasmanian Greens have not ruled out supporting a sale of the state-owned energy retailer Aurora Energy.

An expert panel reviewing the energy industry handed its recommendations to Government at the end of March, but it is yet to respond to them.

It was revealed yesterday the panel was told the sale of Tasmania's energy generation and retail assets would deliver the government a windfall of $8 billion.

The Greens leader, Nick McKim, has joined the Labor and Liberal leaders in opposing a sale of Hydro Tasmania, but has not ruled out selling off Aurora Energy.

"The panel, in broad terms, recommended selling AETV which is currently owned by Aurora and we're working through the pros and cons of that at the moment."

"But we will not be supporting selling any of Hydro Tasmania's generation assets.

"We're still working through the panel's recommendations and we're going to take this very seriously because it is a very important decision and we'll take the time to make sure that we come to a decision that we think is in the best interests of Tasmania," he said.